Hello blog followers and comic book lovers, if you're reading this and or notified of this post, then that means exactly what you think it means. Yes, my good followers it is time for yet another comic book review! Now for this blog entry/review, I will be reviewing a well recognized and timeless comic book classic, "The Spirit" by the famous writer and artist, Will Eisner. Now for those of you thinking, "there was an actual comic book that weird 2008 movie was based off of?" and before you even think of anything else relating to that movie, let me just say, yes... and no. God no. Sort of. There was an actual comic book called "The Spirit" that had a completely different take then the movie did and whatever sort of rewritten decisions new writers decided to do with the characters after Will's passing in 2005. So keep that in mind when you read on to the actual review below.

One other suggestion to keep in mind before I go into any further details about the book and if anyone is already familiar with this story/character or is looking this up before I get the the actual review (shame on you for jumping to spoilers, but I like you're enthusiasm) is consider this a... "warning" for anything some may find "offensive". I know people (especially on the internet) in this day and age are complaining about a lot of things that go way out of proportion and just get people mad, stupid(er) and confused and a lot of good people get burned in the end. People may find reading the original series, somewhat controversial, for (in my impression) one character in particular called, "Mr. Ebony". So if anyone who thinks of anything "racist" about someone with that name, then you're probably right on the money to assume so. Now I'll go into more detail for the actual review in just a second, but I just want to let you people know what to expect about something and remind you to not jump to any serious, aggressive "P.C." (politically correct) drama or complaints about this series because of this is what comics were like back during the early to mid 1900's. We've come a long way since then to be more diverse in comic books today then earlier prints back in the old days. Learn and respect the past to build a better future. Now, with that being all said and out in the open, let's go straight to the review.

The Spirit was a mixed experimental media comic series that was written and drawn up by Will Eisner in the early 1940's and is still around in the publishing world today. Now obviously, many comic stories undergo a transformation in styles and developments as the decades go on, so the version I will be reviewing will be the original 1940's version. This classic comic book series doesn't exactly follow a common plot point or story unlike most comics during the time (like DC and Marvel) The Spirit is more of a selection of interestingly composed short stories about this rogue free spirited (no pun intended) detective hero called, The Spirit and his pursuit to solve mysteries and crimes. Following him on many of his adventures, is his faithful companion/friend Mr. Ebony. The series shows a great variety of different art styles for the characters and environment that really try to bridge the old, news paper comic art strips and the more realistic illustrations of people, objects, and places. One good example would the comparison of Mr. Ebony and The Spirit. Aside from the physical appearance and the way characters talked, would be the illustrative styles of who/what they were representing. And I'm not saying that in a way that would make black people viewed less respectively then a white person in a comic book, I'm saying that in terms of the styles they are made. And if people are still hung up on the race issue then look at other examples such as some of the mob goons, police official, hell even the white commissioner character looks more cartoony then most others (especially compared to The Spirit). This comic series is nothing to be taken seriously in terms of how people should be or were viewed back in those days. This series is something more then just simple ideas and viewpoints and that is it's creative artistic dynamic. The Spirit challenged the use of different art styles in characters to make things seem more "comic" like then real like until it was redone several times throughout the decades. It shows balancing styles in a sense of wanting to be more harmonized and in unison with one another to tell a story. A great modern day example would be the movie, "Who framed Roger Rabbit". You see a big variety of art style selection in a noir themed time story that balances between reality and cartoons. That is what I believe "The Spirit" in it's original form was trying to do. To make way and challenge the different methods of artistic story comic book making for writers and artists some day succeed them. So, to wrap everything here up as shortly as possible, I would highly recommend checking out Will Eisner's early work such as "The Spirit" and approach it with an open mind and open interpretation and to have a drive to wanting to learn more about the wonderful and colorful past about the comic book.